A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the book's preface should be printed on the cover?
Review: This would partially eliminate the need to write a negative review. Most of the complaints in these reviews are of things which the author humorously warns us of even before the book begins. This book is indeed self-conscious, in many respects not to be taken seriously,"juvenile", and self-conscious about being its overly self-consciousness. This has all been laid out already. Its like when people complain about how boring fireworks are ON the fourth of July...you should have known what this was; you're not going to be impressed if you don't want to be. Don't show up next year.
Terrific for the most part, mostly the parts with his brother. Some of the struggling twenty something writer stuff may have needed some trimming. Then again, as is evident often in the book, this is almost a memoir for the author himself. Though I've never read anything else by Eggers, he does seem to have a lot of talent and a heart. The final fifty pages are absolutely terrific. In the end, it seems that his paranoia for the fact that he is of a media-saturated generation whose feelings have been felt is overcome by his self-consciousness of this paranoia and thus the writing appears true. Actually that preface was really pretentious...how could someone call this a new post-modernist classic?

Rating:
Summary: Eh.
Review: This book made me think of a over-achieving high school student trying to dramatize his life story in a college entrance essay ("I was born the son of a black sharecropper . . .") so he'll get noticed for his originality, spunk and Ability to Overcome Harships. The story is about (ostensibly) a young man struggling to piece together his life (and that of his 7 year old brother) after his parents die of cancer within five weeks of each other. In the first chapter, his description of those days before his parents death, how he and his respective family members handled their illnesses and impending deaths, are indeed very honest, interesting, unsentimental and even heartbreaking. After that, the book largely dissolves into clever self-obsessed babbling and an obvious attempt to get rich and famous while publicly exercising of demons in a more socially acceptable manner than appearing on Jerry Springer (or for that matter, The Real World, his interview for which he described in painful detail in the book). Everything about the book is pointedly clever: the introductory "rules and suggestion for enjoyment of this book"; the cutesy and useless preface; the 'i'm-so-funny' acknowledgements. Even his honesty about the events of his life and his shamelessness at the fact that he's using his personal tragedy primarily as a tool of self-promotion, seem to be nothing more than a ploy for a reviewer somewhere down the line to describe his style as honest and refreshing. And in truth, he needs this clever cover. Without it, it's just a story about a relatively privileged young white man who because of a terrible tragedy, got saddled with deep thoughts and responsibility just at a time when he should have been able to party freely. And now, in his words, the world 'owes' him. Oh, boo hoo. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars and not 1 because the one thing that Eggers did consistently well, and without too much self-consciousness, was to portray his feelings about raising his little brother. His pride, pleasure and sense of privilege at being able to raise his brother, despite the difficulties it brought, was genuine and well-expressed and somehow (because their relationship is much of the book) unexploited. But on the whole, I was disappointed with this book -- it was no more than an MTV "pop" novel, with occasional flashes of genuine originality in the writing. I like to think, that given the excellent quality of the first chapter he could have done much more with the rest of the novel. But that would have meant he'd have to take some of the attention away from himself and put a little more thought into the writing. A little too much effort for a hip, busy Gen-Xer like Dave Eggers.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read
Review: One of the most refreshing, genuine, and heart-warming (and occasionally heart breaking) books I've read in a long time. It is superbly written and thoroughly enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Good book..
Review: Its a little long in some places; and you will get tired of the endless ramblings describing something. These seem to take up too much space in the book. Overall though, its a very good book and well written. The ending is probably the best, and his description of San Francisco is also very good.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for the manic depressive in you...
Review: This book is a bit hard to follow at first. Once you start to get to know the author, however, you get more used to the slightly manic stream-of-consciousness style of writing. This is a fascinating story, I wish I could believe a lot of it that I don't. The John character is great as a final (and surprising) source of reality near the end. Not to be read when depressed!

Rating:
Summary: PURE GENIUS !!!
Review: This book is amazing! I cannot believe it got so many bad reviews. I will admit that I am not a literary genius, but I know good stuff when I see it. Eggars is not only extremely creative, but he is also very real. All of his emotions and thoughts expressed in the book are real and expected. He takes you on a journey of sorrow, self doubt, paranoia, and fun. This book has definatly raised my standards for all other literature. I want more, and I will not be satisfied with less.

Rating:
Summary: I was TOLD this book would be good
Review: I chose this book to read for my summer reading book because my teacher praised it and said it was one of the best books he has ever read. I picked up this book thinking "Okay...this HAS to be good because he said so." Sadly, he was wrong. I found parts of this book enterating (the first chapter) and other parts sleep-boring. The worse part was the Real World chapter and how it dragged on and it seemed to never end. There can only be one word to describe Mr. Eggers' life, and that would be messed up.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Funny. read it, don't worry if the first couple of chapters get you down, it gets better.

Rating:
Summary: It lives up to its title.
Review: I loved this book. I could not put it down. It isn't quite fiction, and it's not quite a memoir, but whatever it is, it's funny and interesting and unusual and compelling.

Rating:
Summary: A Post-Postmodern "Classic"
Review: As postmodernism winds down and we try to determine where literature will move _next_ - post-postmodernism - we should give this book a couple of reads. Not only is this book "pleasurable" in terms of reading experience, but it moves the postmodern ball forward by combining an obviously self-analytical/ insider's style (with attendant mockery directed everywhere) with something lacking in many of the now "canonical" postmodern novels - sincerity, and (gasp) sentimentality. On a personal level, most 20 to 35 year old intellectuals and artists will feel that this text speaks to and represents their generation(s) much more adequately than does popular/ media culture - it reflects much more compassion.